Clinton's take

While just the mention of his name may irritate some Southern Utah residents, it is difficult to argue with the results achieved during the presidency of Bill Clinton. Though some people may not like his political stance - and many more found his sexual indiscretions to be abhorrent - history records him as leaving office in January 2001 with a budget surplus and reductions in the U.S. federal debt.

As a result, when Clinton speaks, people in both parties listen.

We'll see if President Barack Obama is among those people.

Clinton, speaking in an interview with the website Ozy.com, said Obama's recent apology to the American people about his numerous statements that people would be able to keep their current health care coverage after the Affordable Care Act went into effect isn't enough.

"So I personally believe, even if it takes a change to the law, the president should honor the commitment the federal government made to those people and let them keep what they got," Clinton said.

To be clear, Clinton wasn't discounting the entire law. In fact, he said he believes the country is better off with the law known as "Obamacare" than without it. And he pointed out that rollouts of large programs often have flaws that have to be corrected.

But it's difficult to discount Clinton's statement that the president should live up to his promise to the American people. While White House officials first tried to explain the contradiction away, the reality is that millions of people who had health policies that they wanted to keep have been told they cannot because of certain stipulations found within the Affordable Care Act.

The president and congressional leaders can either continue down a reckless path that will result in broken promises to the American people and uncertain results, or they can admit there have been mistakes, delay the implementation of the Affordable Care Act for one year and then use that time not to throw out the entire program but instead to make positive changes to it that allows the promises the president made to come true.

That seems like a reasonable course of action. It doesn't throw out the law, but it does put lawmakers and the president back to work to negotiate a better health care law that actually helps more Americans.

There no doubt will be some people who see Clinton's statements as a way of providing some subliminal campaigning for his wife, Hillary, for the 2016 campaign. That may be true, but it doesn't change the fact that on the Affordable Care Act, the former president has given the current president some sound, badly needed advice.

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Clinton's take

While just the mention of his name may irritate some Southern Utah residents, it is difficult to argue with the results achieved during the presidency of Bill Clinton.